As Teuila is caught in the blast, first her body begins to frost over, then icicles form clinging to it. The icicles grow and grow, until she’s entirely encased in a massive shard of ice. I draw the moments closer together, and then spread them further apart. I seek the space between moments. I can’t react. I have no way to rescue her body. Teuila’s frozen corpse is sailing at Olashax, losing momentum, and dropping like a massive block of ice. Tiktik is in his right foreclaw, and he’s preparing to happily leave us behind, to rejoin Astridus. I can’t lose them. I can’t lose them both. No. I can’t think straight, I can’t pause time, I’m caught in a panic. All I can think to do is take my shot lightning leaping in that direction, hoping I have some sort of plan by the time I finish my leap. I can’t even calculate the rotational frequency bit-flipping that I’d need to do to make it less dangerous for myself.

I begin arcing through the air in the general direction of Teuila and Olashax, transforming into the largest lightning bolt I’ve ever been. I’m mere instants from passing out from having overcharged a non spelliform rune, and I’ve got no idea what would happen if I lost consciousness while in this state. Sadly, I have no idea how to save Teuila’s body from shattering upon the canyon floor, as I pass into the ice containing her form for the briefest of moments. In that moment, I realize she’s not derezzing, so I feel a glimmer of hope, only for the hope to be shattered once more when I recall that she’s plummeting to her doom, sure to shatter into a million pieces. I barely guide myself around Zippy, Dippy’s tiny rock drake, who somehow missed being turned into a popsicle himself. Perhaps he’d been perched on Olashax somewhere when Olashax swiped Tiktik, and he’d been trying to free her, now he’s struggling to grip Teuila’s icy form as she drops.

Sadly, he’s barely the size of a hawk, or other bird of prey, and Teuila’s anti-gravity powers don’t seem to be functioning. Olashax is swiping towards Teuila, so I arc into his left foreclaw, and travel up the limb towards his torso. Suddenly, beneath me, a stone ramp begins to form, and I see kobolds scurrying below as Miza erects a smooth surface to angle Teuila’s descent, and a ramp for Dippy to ascend. Dippy and Scrap both rush upwards as Teuila slides downwards, as they prepare a net-launching contraption. My path takes me through Olashax’s chest cavity, and out his right arm, into Tiktik. I immediately release my lightning transformation as I grip Tiktik, bursting open Olashax’s right claws from the sudden formation of matter. My steely body plummets, and all I can think to do is roll so that I absorb the imminent impact. Hugging and cradling Tiktik tightly, I curl around her, and pray that the kobolds working together can save Teuila.

A column of stone strikes Olashax’s face as he roars in pain from my traveling in his chest and shattering his already damaged forelimbs. Miza’s doing, obviously. The tip of the column is coated in spores, and Olashax has the prescience to shut his mouth, hold his breath, and flee, likely recognizing their potential deadliness. I pass out on the way down, unsure if Miza will have enough magic left to slow my descent or redirect it at all.

“Hey Err, what do you think about this one? I don’t really care for the pink logo, but it’s a nice fit, isn’t it? Since I’m flat and all”

I blush, unsure what to say, since I try not to focus on my best friend’s bust. I simply nod and flash her a thumbs up, but she frowns and swats at me, ordering, “Come awwwn, it’s no fun if you don’t have an opinion It’s not like I’m making you watch me put on bathing suits.”

The blood rushes to my ears and my pulse pounds into them along with it. She certainly knows how to fluster me. How long have we been friends? When did we start trying to reintegrate into society? We’ll be trying to get our college careers done, now that we’ve found a place out on route six. It’s abandoned, and drafty, but for now at least, it’s ours. As far as we can tell, no one’s worried about squatters way out there, since you either have to get there by vehicle, or through an old storm drainage ditch tunnel thingy. Crossing the highway on foot is always risky, it’s better to head under it.

—

A voice calls out to Reggie Shellcracker, “You aren’t ready yet. Please stop making this so difficult. As enjoyable as these are, they aren’t yours. Not now.”

Hm? What was—? Teuila! I scream in fear, tears streaming down my face as I painstakingly flood my nervous pathways with electricity so that I’m able to move. Tiktik is bundled against my torso, unmoving, but breathing, though her breath is wracked with pain. Pain that’s been renewed by a dragon squeezing her already crushed ribs. As gingerly as I’m able to, in my haste to find Teuila, I lay Tiktik down against the somehow-dry stone of the ground.

Glancing about, we’re in pitch-blackness, and I can’t see the crackling lightning of Rayileklia’s darkened skies, though I hear the thunder, and the rain, not far away. We’re in a stone shelter devised by Miza, only a few feet tall. I cast out my silent sonar sense, and to my horror, there’s a massive shard of ice, drawing moisture to it, remaining frozen, with Teuila’s unmoving form trapped inside. I wail in despair as I hobblingly crawl towards it.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

All of the kobolds shuffle aside, as I press myself against the icy coffin. My skin sticks to it, and my tears freeze my cheeks to the artificial edifice constructed around Teuila. My Wings. My beloved Wings. Teuila. No, no, no. I sob, crying seemingly endless tears, each of which seem drawn to this block of ice, seemingly feeding it, renewing it. Instead of melting, it pulls moisture to it, encasing Teuila in yet more rime. I scrabble and scratch at the ice, clawing my way to Teuila, but every mark I make in its cold surface is repaired near instantly, in only a few short moments. A cough and a burble draws my senses to Tiktik. She’s coughing up blood. Internal bleeding, oh no, Kitten.

I—. I can’t. I can’t go on. Tiktik lay dying nearby. Teuila, though she isn’t derezzing, seems to be in an enchanted block of ice that will only ever get stronger, and if by some miracle I had the power to shatter it quickly enough, I would surely shatter her as well.

I plead with the kobolds around me, through my tears, “Hel—, glp, help. Please, please help.”

Dippy, anxious, nervous Dippy, only droops his head in sorrow. Miza looks exhausted, bereft of magic. Elder shakes his head and states, “We’ve done what we can, and tried even more. We cannot stay. They will recover, they will regroup. We must move on, and break out west of the chasm, where they would not think us to go.”

I gulp, hiccup, and sob, alternatingly, staring dumbfoundedly in the direction of Elder’s voice. Move on? Right now? When Tiktik lay dying, and Teuila is an enchanted icicle? I begin to seethe with fury, even though I know it’s misplaced. My wrath begins to grow within me, and I know I emit the intense aura of enmity, despite not wanting to. Suddenly I’m struck across the face by a walking stick, or perhaps a bow. I blink in surprise.

After striking me, snapping me from my growing wrath, Dippy addresses me, “The, the, the Red Gee, Reggie, pack, pack, packmate, clan, packmate, takes, takes care of the Tay Oo Ee Lah, and, and and the other, other lady, magic lady, powerful magic lady. In the, the, the, and, in and on, the, the carriage. In and on the carriage. Miza, Miza, egg twin, best egg twin, will, will, will help other magic lady, after a rest, next rest, not now, next rest. Little magic lady, orange hair magic lady, will, will, will be alright, until then, maybe. If, if the Red Gee, Reggie, takes care of her. And, and, and maybe the Dawn friend shows up? The Dawn friend is good at hiding, sneaky, quick. Where, where is the Dawn friend?”

That’s—. That’s right. Oh gods. Dippy doesn’t know that Dawn is gone. Especially with the unsouled dogs and wolves not disappearing. The curse seemingly didn’t account for them. But he’s right about his sister. Miza has some minor healing, but she did a lot of powerful stone moving magic in a short timeframe, in order to save Teuila, and scare off Olashax. She worked with her young son to place an attack that was also a trap powerful enough to drive him away, dangerous enough to drive him off, while almost simultaneously creating several massive ramps and arcs of stone. It’s understandable that she’s exhausted. But Tiktik though, poor Kitten. Can she survive internal hemorrhaging long enough to get Miza’s aid?

I center my silent sonar senses on Tiktik, willing myself to somehow feel deeper, beyond the surface level, to let my sonar travel down her nasal passage, into her lung cavities. Paying this close of attention, to this fine of detail is difficult, but there is a path, however small, for the sense to travel along. There are minor lesions, bruising in her lungs, but they’re not rapidly filling with blood, good. Okay, okay, maybe, maybe just, just maybe there’s some small hope. Tiktik can recover. There’s suddenly a small pooling of several drops of blood in her lungs, from one of the lesions, and Tiktik coughs it up shortly, aerosolizing it in the process, spraying it into her chest where her head is tucked. It’s terrifying to sense, because I’m no doctor, and I have no idea how survivable something like that is. I haven’t lost her, my Kitten, my most recent friend, at least not yet.

But, but Teuila though? Tears flood forth from my eyes yet again, and seem drawn towards the ice once more. How do I do this? How do I do this without you? Te, without you, without My Wings, My Anchor, or My Heart, how do I go on? Dippy thankfully refrains from assaulting me further, as I sink in on myself, sobbing. I can’t even bear the idea of bringing up Dawn to tell him, not now, not now that I’ve lost Teuila, and when Tiktik’s chances of survival are so close to dangerously low.

I shake, and sob, for some time yet. Shivering, I suddenly realize that this isn’t everyone. Hellga is still in the carriage! I’ve doomed the woman once, I can’t do it again! Frantically I seek succor from our temporary shelter, and thankfully there’s a narrow exit nearby. Stumblingly I race forth, and squeeze through it, into Rayileklia’s gloomy rains. I twitch and spasm, falling to my knees, and then I immediately topple over when hit by another spasm. I’m paying the price for filling cored nerve tunnels with non spelliform lightning. The signals have intermittent hiccups, like packet loss, or data corruption. I gather myself, and return to my feet to race to the carriage.

Though there is blistering to the paint, and peeling, marring, and the occasional tear, for the most part, despite a few patches of frost, the carriage is fine. Hellga is unconscious within. I’m worried that she may never recover. Since we started traveling with her, she’s only been barely conscious a few times, only long enough to eat or drink. We’ve thankfully got magic on our side, so we can clean any of the rags we use to soak up when she soils herself. How can I take care of someone who can’t take care of themselves, when I feel utterly decimated? Not just one someone, but possibly two if Tiktik can’t recover with Miza’s help. I feel lost and so alone. I feel like I’m going to end up as nothing but a big old pile of broken bones, and now I’m only shattered, just waiting for that moment.